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The Happiest Days of Our Lives
If you've ever read Wil Wheaton's blog (clevernickname to us), you know he's not afraid to put everything on the table. One of the things I've always admired about his writing is his willingness to talk about his kids. On the internet. With ... people. Despite the obvious problems that could cause, Wil has been sharing anecdotes about his adventures in parenting since the early days of WWDN. His newest book, The Happiest Days of Our Lives, talks about growing up geek and what it means to be a nerd and a father at the same time. Read on for my review.
The Happiest Days of Our Lives
author
Wil Wheaton
pages
136
publisher
Monolith Press
rating
8/10
reviewer
Zonk
ISBN
0974116017
summary
Wil Wheaton's recollections of growing up, and parenting, as a nerd.
That the bones of the book's content comes directly from Wil's website shouldn't distract you. Whether you've been a reader all along (and might recognize some of these stories) or not, they've all been expanded and clarified for inclusion in the book. That clarification is something that comes across very strongly in Happiest Days, especially if you have read any of his previous work. Wil has put a great deal of work into the craft of writing over the past few years, and it shows. Some three years have passed since his sophomore effort in Just a Geek, and even more since Dancing Barefoot.
Where once it seemed as though Wil had something to prove in his writing - that he was over showbiz, that he was over Star Trek - Happiest Days is full of simple stories. The day he bought a Lando Calrissian action figure essentially by mistake, a simple outing for ice cream with his sons; they're everyday events but artfully told. In total he has about thirteen short tales in the chapbook-sized novel, ranging from just two pages long to a few dozen.
Some of his most evocative stories (and the reason this review is here) are all about Wil's growth as a nerdling. The most evocative for me was the chapter 'a portrait of the artist as a young geek', which details Wil's introduction to tabletop roleplaying. From his first brush with the infamous 'red box' D&D set at Christmas 1983, to his experience teaching his kids how to roll up characters under the 3.0 rulesset, the story reminds me (and may remind you) of a D6-laden past.
And really, that's what Wil makes this a book about. It's about his own past, his troubles, his triumphs, but in reality this is meant to be a book that reaches out to you as a reader. If you see something of yourself in the kid who agonized in the toy aisle, if you see something of yourself in the dad who argues with his kids over the radio station (and rocks out to 80s synth-pop), then the purpose of the Happiest Days has been fulfilled. Or at least, as I see it.
And, of course, if you like Wil's discussion of Star Trek there's some elements of that there as well. The difference, again, is that instead of pining for Trek itself, Wil reminisces about the impact Trek has had upon him. Great experiences talking like adults with Jonathan Frakes, the chance to speak to Ron Moore backstage at a con, and the recording of a documentary are what makes for stories from Wil in the here and now.
Probably the book's strongest element is also its biggest drawback. Wil's vicious editing and strong prose makes for an incredibly short book. The amount of story and emotion packed into the bare 136 pages is impressive. But ... it's still just 136 pages. And for $20, that seems a bit steep. For me, though, it was worth it to support an author that's been a pleasure to watch grow over the last several years. From blogger to published writer, Wil Wheaton's journey is laid out in miniature in the pages of Happiest Days. With the sour taste of Just a Geek washed out of his mouth, my hope is that we'll see more long-form work from Wheaton in the future. In the meantime this is a worthy 'sequel' to Dancing Barefoot, and well worth a look by fans of the well-placed word.
You can purchase The Happiest Days of Our Lives from Monolith Press. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
That the bones of the book's content comes directly from Wil's website shouldn't distract you. Whether you've been a reader all along (and might recognize some of these stories) or not, they've all been expanded and clarified for inclusion in the book. That clarification is something that comes across very strongly in Happiest Days, especially if you have read any of his previous work. Wil has put a great deal of work into the craft of writing over the past few years, and it shows. Some three years have passed since his sophomore effort in Just a Geek, and even more since Dancing Barefoot.
Where once it seemed as though Wil had something to prove in his writing - that he was over showbiz, that he was over Star Trek - Happiest Days is full of simple stories. The day he bought a Lando Calrissian action figure essentially by mistake, a simple outing for ice cream with his sons; they're everyday events but artfully told. In total he has about thirteen short tales in the chapbook-sized novel, ranging from just two pages long to a few dozen.
Some of his most evocative stories (and the reason this review is here) are all about Wil's growth as a nerdling. The most evocative for me was the chapter 'a portrait of the artist as a young geek', which details Wil's introduction to tabletop roleplaying. From his first brush with the infamous 'red box' D&D set at Christmas 1983, to his experience teaching his kids how to roll up characters under the 3.0 rulesset, the story reminds me (and may remind you) of a D6-laden past.
And really, that's what Wil makes this a book about. It's about his own past, his troubles, his triumphs, but in reality this is meant to be a book that reaches out to you as a reader. If you see something of yourself in the kid who agonized in the toy aisle, if you see something of yourself in the dad who argues with his kids over the radio station (and rocks out to 80s synth-pop), then the purpose of the Happiest Days has been fulfilled. Or at least, as I see it.
And, of course, if you like Wil's discussion of Star Trek there's some elements of that there as well. The difference, again, is that instead of pining for Trek itself, Wil reminisces about the impact Trek has had upon him. Great experiences talking like adults with Jonathan Frakes, the chance to speak to Ron Moore backstage at a con, and the recording of a documentary are what makes for stories from Wil in the here and now.
Probably the book's strongest element is also its biggest drawback. Wil's vicious editing and strong prose makes for an incredibly short book. The amount of story and emotion packed into the bare 136 pages is impressive. But ... it's still just 136 pages. And for $20, that seems a bit steep. For me, though, it was worth it to support an author that's been a pleasure to watch grow over the last several years. From blogger to published writer, Wil Wheaton's journey is laid out in miniature in the pages of Happiest Days. With the sour taste of Just a Geek washed out of his mouth, my hope is that we'll see more long-form work from Wheaton in the future. In the meantime this is a worthy 'sequel' to Dancing Barefoot, and well worth a look by fans of the well-placed word.
You can purchase The Happiest Days of Our Lives from Monolith Press. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
This is definitely one of my favourite books of the year, if for no other reason than the simple familiarity of the writing. Reading it is like sitting in a pub with an especially expressive friend, listening to him tell you some crazy story about his past that you suspect must be embellished, but don't mind if it is. After a crazy day dealing with puffed-up psychopaths a few weeks ago, I read four chapters, and it's like the casual tone just evaporated all my tension. Wil sucks the pretension out of the air with his writing... it's just superb.
The one thing I'm hoping for is a work of fiction next... I know it's an extra-daunting task, but I'm sure it'd kick ass.
The world's only surviving livewriter.
But the site says ordering will be back up by the 26th.
Wil just sold through 300 signed hard cover copies and I guess the paperbacks will be available again in the next week or so.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
I'm a 300! woohoooooooooo!
is what Trek he thinks is best! c'mon, throw us a frickin' bone here!
(full disclosure - i've voted about a dozen times for TOS - not that it's helped)
+1 fashionably cynical
Clearly, it is not possible to be a nerd and a father at the same time... the former should make the latter impossible.
I want to play Free Market with a drowning Libertarian.
I still want to kick him in the nuts repeatedly.
I did too, until I read some of his stuff. And then I learned that I just wanted to kick Wesley Crusher in the nuts repeatedly, and bore no ill will whatsoever to his doppleganger Wil Wheaton.
Its not really Wil's fault he played the most annoying kid in Star Trek (and most other franchises for that matter). And if he hadn't done it someone else would have played the part, and we would have hated it just as much.
In other words: blame Roddenberry and his writers for inflicting us with Wesley Crusher, not Wil Wheaton.
Zonk can read?
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
Always seemed too gawky to me.
hater
Those living in America and under the age of 35 - and this is where it gets really depressing - haven't even experienced an alternative philosophy. No-one starves, almost everyone can buy something resembling a '70s supercomputer and put it in their back pocket, but spiritually, we're dead. We live for bits of metal and plastic; this is what technocracy has become. The greatest scientists were once almost always driven by Neoplatonism; read Newton, read Kepler, read Leibniz - this last undoubtedly the father of automation.
Today, being mentally proficient means getting a cushy consultancy job for private industry or government (but not for the people) and raking in the $. This board is full of those very people, so of course I'm going to meet resistance - while the majority of the country suffers.
Rome, on the other hand, was about conquering and exploitation, and if it looked civilised, it was because it had the organisational skill to implement old, well-known technology. Sure, we have Boethius and the like to thank for preserving Greek work, but this was the age of the commentator. 1,000 years of the dark ages Let me guess, your high school history lesson went: cavemen, Romans, Dark Ages thanks to Evil Christianity and that warmonger Mohammed, glorious Western Renaissance.... Your post reveals such a shallow dip in the Perian spring it embarrasses me to share a mother tongue with you.
(Nice trollish use of QWZX to save the trouble of searching, though.
Having kids who've grown up to be people you like as well as love -- that utterly rocks.
All things considered, the fifties so far have been the best times I can remember. I'm willing to wait for grandchildren, but only in the "do not open before Xmas" sense.
Lacking <sarcasm> tags,
I find it kind of sad to think of Wil reading through the comments on here. I'm sure as a regular to slashdot he's probably used to the trolling that goes on, but it's still got to be hard on him at some level to read some of this stuff. I for one hadn't heard about this book before now, but I think I'll go pickup a copy. It's always interesting to see a fellow geeks perspective on life, and Wil usually does a pretty good job of expressing that perspective.
Curiosity was framed, Ignorance killed the cat.
I can't recall seeing anything in the past few months. In any case I think that with WW you have a combination of someone with a lot of recognition that many many of us used to hate but then found out that he was very much like us. If you have wronged someone it's nice to be extra nice to them later.
I suspect that if he had played a more mudane, more likable minor ST character (say Odo on DS9 or O'brien on TNG) he wouldn't be held in such high regard today.
That said, I really like his work and can't think of any other ST actor I'd more like to hang out with.
Perhaps you'd care to have your book reviewed here also?
After finishing the book, Wheaton reported that his children began singing about not needing "no education" and asking him to "leave them kids alone"
My life's goal is to get a score of +3!
I don't know, because he is one of us?
How many of the true slashdot long term readers, posters and contributors have had his experiences? While he may never have such artful tales to tell like the one time where Bill Joy asked me what my favourite text editor was (without me knowing who he was, thank goodness for knowing emacs was shit even back then) he has many tales that involve that whole scary black box of hollywood and the sycophants involved. More importantly he can spin a good tale about being a modern day grown up geek in America with kids. Where's the harm in enjoying that?
Slashdot is as much about being a place for geeks as it is about rehashing the geeky news on a daily basis. Here's to you Goatboy (from Y irc circa 92? 93?) for continuing to be who you are even with far too many people watching and caring.
--- I do not moderate.
grow up already. But to bring you up to speed, wil wheaton != wesley crusher. sheesh.
You obviously haven't gotten a grasp on the whole supply and demand concept here. People like reading about him, therefore people post articles about him. This is news about nerds, what part of it wouldn't fit in the Slashdot topography?
That said, I really like his work and can't think of any other ST actor I'd more like to hang out with.
I don't know about that, Patrick Stewart really is an amazing actor. Of course Wil does have that whole geek thing going for him, so maybe he'd be more entertaining long run, but it would still be pretty cool to have a chance to chat with Patrick Stewart.Curiosity was framed, Ignorance killed the cat.
Heh ... When I was a kid, I watched ST:TNG faithfully and had a massive crush on Wesley Crusher. Nerd girls...what can I say? We're our own breed. It's good to know Wheaton's doing well as an adult.
At least our countrymen are getting exactly what they deserve: the number of people coming out on top is ever diminshing; eventually the remaining citizens will revolt.
Yeah, some people worked hard, built themselves up to the top, and now they're going to get overthrown, exactly what they deserved.
It's a shame nobody ever invented a "Protestant employment ethic" whereby the people who work hard actually do get to rise to the top, but a corporation's only got one CEO and you can't have a pyramid without there being less space at the top than at the bottom.
look to Ancient Greece for advances in mathematics, science, astronomy, etc. Or, moving East a little and for the cultural inspiration for Greek mathematical advance, to Egypt or Babylon.
Typical anti-Roman babblings. Sure, the greeks get credit for some math and science (though, the Middle East is far overrated on those things), but the Romans took a bunch egghead ramblings and turned it into civil engineering. I don't think it can be argued that the Romans did more than anyone in history to bring civilization to the savage outlying countries.
In fact, Rome was *this* close to creating modern society. They were very close to having working steam engines, which would have done the same thing as it did in the mid 1800s, and make slavery uneconomical.
Dark Ages thanks to Evil Christianity and that warmonger Mohammed, glorious Western Renaissance
Er, that's pretty much accurate. Nothing destroyed civilization like the rise of religion. It's pretty much held us back 1,000 or 2,000 years, depending on how you want to count it. Christianity had a big hand in causing Rome to fall, leading to a thousand years of chaos and misery. If Rome had been kept strong, eventually it would have led to modern society far sooner, and probably without the millstone of religion that still holds us back today.
In other words: blame Roddenberry and his writers for inflicting us with Wesley Crusher, not Wil Wheaton.
Ahh, but STNG would not be what is was without the sum of its parts. For better or for worse, Wesley Crusher was a core element of the series even if he was only a minor character (no pun intended). Poor writers = Kobayashi Maru.
Yeah it would be great to spend an hour or an evening with Patrick Stewart or Brent Spiner or Michael Dorn but after you've heard the interesting stories I think that would dry up rather quickly. Wil is a Dad (Step-Dads count), a geek, a gamer, he's close to my age (he's a tad younger), I have WAY more in common with him as I suspect is the case with a whole lotta /.ers.
I think anybody who's a regular on the Internet knows how silly and meaningless trolls are. As a regular slashdotter, I think he knows that the praise is much higher than the trolling is low. Most everything anti-Wil I've seen consists of pointless, poorly thought out sentences. But the complements are just as consistent: thoughtful appreciation of the warm, emotional relationships that are unique to his writing, yet instantly familiar to us.
You think a few lame-o trolls on Slashdot are going to affect him? At one point in time he had almost all of nerddom hating him. Usenet groups dedicated to his destruction. People at cons screaming at him. In Klingon. You name it.
Wil probably has thicker skin than a rhino at this point.
That being said - I'm a fan. Of both Wil and Wesley. Suck it, haters.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
I got my copy in the mail a few weeks ago, right before I left on a trip. When I got back I picked it up and then didn't put it down until I was done. It's a real thrill ride of a "whodunit". Ok, it's not but it IS very compelling reading.
I enjoyed it immensely. Perhaps this was partly because I grew up in the town neighboring his so those stories had extra meaning to me. However, I think any geek will enjoy it, as someone else said in the comments, he's "one of us".
My formal review is on my blog: http://www.offlinetshirts.com/blog/index.php/2007/11/20/book-review-happiest-days-of-our-lives/
As a disclaimer, I must admit to having met Wil in person and to getting my copy for free (which was a very cool surprise).
~Fricka
OffLineTshirts.com
The Happiest Days of Our Lives - Pink Floyd
When we grew up and went to school
There were certain teachers who would
Hurt the children any way they could
By pouring their derision
Upon anything we did
And exposing every weakness
However carefully hidden by the kids
But in the town it was well known
When they got home at night, their fat and
Psycopathic wives would thrash them
Within inches of their lives
nothing but a bitch
Yes, Floyd came to mind as well. But if I hear one more story of how he slipped Ashley Judd the tongue...
there will be some thrashings from me, too.
In other words: blame Roddenberry and his writers for inflicting us with Wesley Crusher, not Wil Wheaton.
You couldn't possibly be blaming Eugene Wesley Roddenberry for completely ruining the series through some sort of bizarre egotistical wish-fulfillment, could you?
Rapid technological advance (which really wasn't happening anyway) instead of the fall of Rome, without a corresponding social advance - the Renaissance was mostly about looking back to Greece, thank fuck, not Rome - would have been horrible. A fascist technocracy is exactly where we're heading now, because we've shaken off Neohumanist principles; and very few will benefit from it. (Though quite a few readers to this site will - and, TBH, I could easily benefit from it also. But I'd rather die than make slaves of my fellow men.)
If you were/are a fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation, go and read Wil's own TNG episode reviews at TV Squad.
I guarantee you - you will almost die laughing.
Sure, in the luxury of the Nile and protected by the desert, Egyptians didn't have much motivation to behave as exploitative, expansive Romans, but they sure as hell knew how to apply simple mathematics to engineering projects a good couple of millennia before Rome.
Of course people threw together some structures before Rome, but so what? The point is that Rome didn't just sit on all these advances, they brought them to the savages in the outlying areas. They spread civilization around the world, similar to what England did during their Empire years. You're talking about a few insulated societies who managed to naval-gaze for awhile, I'm talking about civilizing the world.
Please state what you're actually trying to say - is it Christian philosophy that causes empires to fall?
Where do you think the power went to once the Roman empire fell? Straight to the Roman Catholic church is where. They grabbed the power for themselves and undermined the Empire. The Church enslaved far more people than the Romans ever dreamed up -- they just did it in a more subtle way. "Put your faith in God, and honor him by building this church! And by giving us a tithe! And by the way, you better put your faith in God or we'll slaughter you." It's just slavery by a different method.
Again, Rome was fascist.
Of course they were! But they were on the path toward modern society. Technology would have brought about the evolution of that society away from a slave-based empire to a capitalistic one, just like the English kings eventually gave power to its business citizens -- because it made more money that way. It was still brutal, but it was moving in the direction of greater freedom.
Instead, the anti-science Church plunged everybody back into darkness and superstition that lasted over a thousand years, and even then Galileo was put in jail for being a scientist. If Galileo had the same ideas in the Roman empire, he would not have been persecuted.
It's undeniable that the fall of Rome was a travesty of history.
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
Is the US the only country inflicted with the evils of pop-psycho-babble?
BTW, I'd say cut Wheaton some slack. The guy's paid his dues, pop-culturally-speaking.
All this talk of pop makes me thirsty...
Man, this is Grammer Nazi'ing at a new level.
Ha, I made Nazi a verb! I guess this will lead to another pointless post by yet another Grammer Nazi.
When I was a kid, I watched ST:TNG faithfully and had a massive crush on Wesley Crusher. Nerd girls...what can I say?
. . . I suspect this is the root of the ire coming from nerd guys. . . .
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
Largely, to the various peoples that broke free of the Roman state as it fell.
Er, no. The Roman state was pretty consistently moving toward less freedom (particularly substantive political freedom) for its citizens from a point well before the fall of the Republic through the fall of the western Empire. Its true that toward the end of the western Empire, it was moving toward more inclusive citizenship as more and more of the "barbarians" were granted citizenship in exchange for military service because the Empire was unable to hold itself together, but that was an integral parts of the fall of the Empire, not a trend toward greater liberty that could have been sustained with the Empire standing.
"Slave-based" and "capitalistic" aren't opposites, or even excluded. The American South prior to the Civil War had an economy both slave-based and capitalistic.
No, the collapse of central authority and organized society and general war of all against all that accompanied it did that, inasmuch as it happened at all (and, actually, its not like the period from the fall of Rome to the Renaissance wasn't full of advances, including several agricultural and industrial revolutions which made the Renaissance possible; there is nothing like a period of over a thousand years of relative "darkness and superstition" except in popular mythology.)
No, Galileo was put in jail for doing what was perceived as a direct and personal insult to the sitting Pope, his principal patron, in his writing. It wasn't his ideas (which he'd made public long before he got in trouble), it was putting the views associated with the current Pope, who supported him despite their disagreement, into the mouth of a figure portrayed as a buffoon that got him into trouble.
Betraying a powerful political patron without securing another willing to protect you first was also not a wise move in the Roman Empire.
erm, I care not to correct your verbification of nouns, but I will tell you this:
It's grammAr dammit, grammAAAAAAAAAr!
(no, it's not Talk Like A Pirate day again, but it is the Queen's English and she spells it with an A, so you will too.)
Love and Hugs,
Spelling Nazi
Of course people threw together some structures before Rome, but so what?
Christ, man, pick up a translation of the Rhind papyrus or something, to see the scale at which people were planning engineering and resource allocation, and the numerical skill they possessed to handle such problems, even in ancient Egypt. This was not "throwing together". You're going to have to go e.g. megalithic Britain if you want a debate on whether structures were simply thrown together - consider the implications of Chace's arguments on understanding of geometry and use of a standard unit to organisation of society.
The point is that Rome didn't just sit on all these advances, they brought them to the savages in the outlying areas.
Where do I begin?
In your favour, at least:
To look at the correct way to bring technology to "savages" for their benefit we turn to the Renaissance. Consider the Neohumanist Robert Recorde, whose vernacular, easy-to-digest volumes indicated quite clearly their purposes in the Prefaces - to provide tools for the tradesman and the navigator; to enable laws to be more fairly applied; to replace appeal to authority with appeal to logic. He brought technology to the burgeoning merchant class not by conquering a country but by simply writing compendia of knowledge in his native language and making the knowledge available in books at a reasonable price!
The Church enslaved far more people than the Romans ever dreamed up -- they just did it in a more subtle way. "Put your faith in God, and honor him by building this church! And by giving us a tithe! And by the way, you better put your faith in God or we'll slaughter you." It's just slavery by a different method.
The American Government enslaves far more people than the C10 Catholic Church ever deramed up -- they just did it in a more subtle way. "Put your faith in GWB, and honour him by making this Pledge of Allegiance! And pay your taxes! And by the way, you better cough up and not speak too harshly against us or we'll lock you up and take away your property." [yes, at least we've moved beyond instant death for dissenters :-)] It's just slavery by a different method.
The Great Leader/King/President/whatever will always be a vicious megalomaniac and will always make you pay tithes at knife/gunpoint. He hasn't wrestled more control from you because he can't, not because he thinks it's more profitable to give you freedom. He requires sufficient popular support or he will be overthrown. And, as Recorde recognised, the best way to keep the population sufficiently sus
Don't you just hate people who verbify nouns?
When they came for the communists, I said "He's next door. Take him away. Goddam commies."
Ooh, please educate me more on this "Rise of religion". I'd love to know more about the thousands of years of human history before religion existed. I always thought religious beliefs arose at the latest around the time we advanced from bands to tribes, but apparently religion didn't arise until christianity!
Hell, I'd even been led to believe that the Romans were a very religious culture themselves, but I guess those "Roman gods" I heard about must have been referring to something else.
If you're going to troll with your copy and paste then could you at least make sure your website works before spamming it over the internets!
The GP might want to learn more about the English language and its gerund thingy. That's right, "thingy" isn't a word either. Suck on it GP.
I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
It's mutual. You should have seen what Wil blogged about me.
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
You can talk in Klingon without screaming?
Well, you can, but nobody is going to understand you. And trust me, Klingon is not a language where you want to risk being misunderstood.
The beauty of English is that it's an evolving language, the nature of words, their meanings and context are changing with time. Sure maybe once upon a time Parenting wasn't a verb, but we (those who speak English) are changing it's meaning and adding new words and definitions. For example: Decimate... no longer means to remove just one in ten, but is more often used to mean destroyed or devastated (and we all know its new meaning!) I had an English teacher who would give us detention if we said the "kid" or "kids" and not use the "proper word" Children... English evolves and adapts... Get used to it.
D6?? I associate D6 with Monopoly and Steve Jackson & Ian Livingstone Fighting Fantasy books, not D&D. I think I still have my d20 (if I can still call it that without getting permission from Hasbro ;P) from my first edition of D&D.
...+1 Pedantic nerd?
Yeah - verbing weirds grammar.
I take exception to this! The most annoying kid in TNG was that little brat Worf had!
We're through being cool! Eliminate the ninnies and the twits! -Devo
Actually, I hate his character in "Stand By Me."
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
The dude is in his mid-30's now, not some goofy teenager.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
All this is good, but never forget: He's no ordinary nerd.
Ordinary nerds don't get paid to make out with Ashley Judd.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
"It's not the verbing that weirds language, it's the renounification." -- Unknown
dragonhawk@iname.microsoft.com
I do not like Microsoft. Remove them from my email address.
One of the things I've always admired about his writing is his willingness to talk about his kids
... look, Zonk, if you like my stuff, please don't tell anybody! At least... oh hell, CmdrTaco is next, I just know it =(
Damn, and I thought I was in trouble a few years ago when K5's Rusty put me on his watch list. My reaction was "Holy cow! I'm on Rusty's watchlist! Now I'll never be able to get laid
But here I am with Zonk saying this and
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
This Internet 2.1 blog for user Mildred is powered by The Cheapest Blog Host On The Internet! , the revolutionary web 2.0 metalayer. Get yours now!
I always thought religious beliefs arose at the latest around the time we advanced from bands to tribes, but apparently religion didn't arise until christianity!
There was religion, but Christianity was the first "big religion" that controlled vast swaths of the world, and was willing to use genocidal tactics to spread itself.
Oh, apologies then. Didn't know it was like that.